5 Years of Love Was Just a Disguise The Alpha’s Revenge Was Real Chapter 05

5 Years of Love Was Just a Disguise The Alpha’s Revenge Was Real Chapter 05

The ceremony had dissolved into chaos. Steven stood in the middle of it, face blank, completely lost.

The moment Isabella’s words sank in, he bolted downstairs, searching for me. But at the hotel entrance, he stopped dead.

His mother — the woman who was supposed to have been in a coma for ten years — was standing right there, holding two little boys by the hands, trying to disappear into the crowd.

His eyes went wide. He stumbled back.

He shoved through the crowd, searching for me again.

“Lydia Carter!” Panic cracked his voice wide open.

He followed the trail to where I’d landed. I had jumped from the fourth-floor balcony. I’d landed in a garbage dumpster out back. When he saw me move, the tension drained from his shoulders.

“Lydia, Silas and the others were just messing around — they wouldn’t dare actually touch you without my say-so…”

His eyes were rimmed red. He was scrambling to explain.

“What’s going on… with my mom?”

I watched the fear settle over his face — the terror of a man who already knew the answer.

I climbed down from the dumpster and gave him the truth.

“You spent five years calling me the mistress’s daughter, Steven. But you never knew the whole story, did you? Your mom handpicked my mother for the job. She and your dad never loved each other — not for a single day. She doesn’t even love you. The whole thing was an act — all for your grandfather’s estate. Ten years ago, she didn’t collapse because she couldn’t handle the pain. She was pregnant and ran off to be with her lover. She abandoned you years ago. And everything that’s happening to you right now? You brought it on yourself.”

I held up my phone right in front of his face and hit send on the evidence to the pack elders.

The pack elders arrived fast. They took Steven and every one of his friends into custody. The mating ceremony fell apart into a farce.

Isabella draped her coat around my shoulders, tears streaming down her face, and helped me into the ambulance.

I spent three days in the hospital. The day I was discharged, my mom came to see me. She looked pale.

“Lydia, I failed you.”

“But after your dad died, an omega like me couldn’t survive in that town alone. You don’t know what it was like. Every night, unmated males prowled outside our house. I was terrified…”

Tears slid down her cheeks as she pressed a bag into my arms.

“There’s fifty grand in cash in here. I’ve been saving it for you. You tore Silvermoon’s last secret wide open. They won’t let that go. Leave now. Get as far away as you can.”

She crushed me against her chest for one fierce second, then shoved me into the waiting taxi.

“Lydia, I’m so sorry for everything you’ve been through. I really thought Steven was different. I thought he’d look after you…”

The car pulled away, and her voice faded behind me.

I clutched the bag to my chest. My phone rang.

“Lydia, my mom couldn’t handle what happened ten years ago. She went into a coma. She… she couldn’t possibly wake up! There’s no way. And twins? That’s not — that can’t be real…”

His voice kept shaking. I listened to every word. Then I hung up.

The taxi headed straight for the airport. Steven called again and again.

I rejected every one and blocked his number.

But the mindlink bled through again — those same voices, that same crossed channel.

[Oh shit, Steven’s lost it!]

Steven had walked out of the pack holding facility and come face-to-face with his mother and the two boys.

The twins saw him first. They charged at him and kicked him in the shins.

“You’re our brother?”

“Mom says you’re loaded. She says when you die, we get everything — your money, your pack, all of it!”

The boys sneered without a shred of fear, completely blind to the way Steven’s expression darkened.

They yanked at his clothes, hurling insults. Steven’s face went gray. He shoved them off.

His eyes were bloodshot, and he turned on his mother. She reached him first — running up and slapping him across the face before he could get a word out.

“Steven, they’re your brothers — your blood! How dare you treat them like that?! I thought you’d grown up, but you’re still the same vicious little boy. Faking that coma was the best decision I ever made.”

The slap rocked him. He stood frozen for a beat. Then he snapped. He grabbed both boys by the throat.

Amelia rushed up behind him, terrified, trying to pull him off. He sent her sprawling with a single shove.

[Steven’s completely unhinged. Does anyone know where the homewrecker’s spawn is?]

[Find her fast — last time he lost it like this, she was the only one who could get through to him!]

[Got her, got her!]

[She’s about to leave Silvermoon!]

The taxi had already pulled up at the airport. I stepped out, pulled my SIM card, snapped it in half, and dropped the pieces in the trash.

I was in the security line when a crash echoed from the drop-off zone outside.

“Car crash! There’s been a crash!”

“Somebody call an ambulance!”

Steven dragged himself out of the wreck, blood pouring down his face.

“Lydia, how long have you known the truth?”

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner…”